Hotels in the U.S. added 700 jobs to their payrolls in May, latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has revealed. This highlights that the labor crisis continues to persist nationwide making it difficult for hotels to fill vacancies, the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) said in a release.
According to government data, total hotel employment stands at roughly 1.92 million. This means there are 191,500 less workers in the industry than there was in February 2020, reflecting the scarcity of available employees since the onset of the pandemic, AHLA said.
Although hotels are keen on creating more employment opportunities, the nationwide labor shortage is preventing them for doing so, said Kevin Carey, AHLA’s interim president and CEO.
“Congress and the administration can provide relief to hoteliers by taking a number of key steps to increase the pool of available workers. Those include expanding the number of H-2B visas, extending the certification period for H-2B employees, and making it easier for qualified asylum seekers to start working in the U.S.”
Hotels have been continuing to offer increase wages, benefits and workplace flexibility to woo and retain workers amid the labor crunch. Since the pandemic, average hotel wages (+26.4%) have surged more than 20%. However, despite the increases, there are thousands of vacancies in hotels in the U.S., AHLA said citing data by Indeed.
As of April, there were 8.1 million open jobs in the U.S. and only 6.5 million unemployed people to fill these vacancies, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
AHLA POLICIES
AHLA has urged the Department of Homeland Security to expand the workforce by making available around 65,000 additional H-2B temporary non-agricultural worker visa on an urgent basis, under the authority which Congress gave it as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act.
AHLA also called on the Congress to pass the following bills which will expand the workforce:
- The Closing the Workforce Gap Act of 2024: Replacing the arbitrary annual limit of 66,000 H-3B guest worker visas with a new system based on requirement to allocate visas.
- The H-2 Improvements to Relieve Employers Act: Expanding the H-2A/H-2B labor certification period to three years and permanently authorizing the waiver of in-person interviews for returning workers. The act seeks to make it easier for qualified workers to get jobs in fields which are still struggling to hire and retain employees. By widening the pool of seasonal workers, the bill will offer relief to small business hotels and facilitate the hotel sector’s continued recovery.
- The Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act: Allowing people seeking asylum at ports of entry to be eligible for work authorizations from 30 days after they have applied for asylum, provided their applications are not frivolous; they are not detained; their identities have been verified; and their names are checked with the federal government’s terrorist watch lists. This change will help hotels better tackle critical staffing needs. At present, the law prevents those seeking asylum from legally working for at least six months, forcing them to rely on aid from local governments and communities.